


Morning Rituals

by nivu_vu



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Gen, enhanced coffee use, sometimes, you gotta have a good time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 16:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11650173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nivu_vu/pseuds/nivu_vu
Summary: Carlos finds out the special touch Cecil adds to his coffee ;^3c





	Morning Rituals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SwiftRiver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwiftRiver/gifts).



Cecil would always be offended whenever Carlos got café-bought coffee.

“I like to grind it myself,” Cecil would say.

And Carlos just took it as one of the many eccentricities of his boyfriend, of which there were _many_. Grinding his own coffee was the least of Carlos’s concerns about Cecil. That was, until Carlos walked in on Cecil doing so one morning.

It was a morning like any other. The sun was screaming. The Sheriff’s Secret Police lumbered sleepily into their places for the day. The Faceless Old Woman was carefully strewing poorly made gay pornography all around to make Cecil and Carlos question each other’s tastes. It didn’t work because they both already knew all of each other’s most eccentric tastes, and they really had no right to place any judgment. On anyone. Ever.

Carlos yawned and walked half-blind into the kitchen, only to be violently yanked from his drowsiness by the sound of a hammer slamming down onto the counter.

“Cecil!”

“Oh,” Cecil said sheepishly, turning to him, hammer still in hand. “I didn’t see you there.”

Carlos walked over as casually as he could. “Uh, what’re you doing there, honey?”

“Just making my morning coffee.” Cecil had his hand over something on the counter.

“Is that what’s under you hand there?” Carlos pointed out.

Cecil bit his lip. As much as he could lie to himself, he couldn’t lie to Carlos. It was endearing, in a horribly backwards way.

Carlos reached over and removed Cecil’s hand to reveal white crumbs, shards, and powder. He reached down with a finger to get a sample for his tongue, but Cecil smacked his hand out of the way.

“Um,” they both said in unison.

“What is this?” Carlos said alone.

“Um,” Cecil repeated, alone. He continued, “I don’t think you should put any of it on your tongue. Maybe intravenously? Or in the form of vapor?”

Carlos looked at the particles of white crystal, then back at his boyfriend, then back at the crystal. “Cecil,” he said carefully, “Is this the type of _crystal_ I think it is?”

Cecil moved inhumanly fast – he grabbed a cup from the microwave, wiped all of the crystal from the counter into the steaming cup, and downed it in one go. With a swing of his hand, the cup flew into the sink and shattered.

“Well!” he said. “That’s taken care of.”

“Why do you drink meth in your coffee?”

Cecil placed a hand on Carlos’s shoulder. “There comes a time in every man’s life when coffee stops working.”

Carlos nodded slowly.

“And then Adderall stops working.”

Carlos nodded even more slowly.

“And then methamphetamines stop working.”

Carlos stopped nodding.

“And then you have to take some extra measures to make sure you can get through the day.”

Carlos shook his head. “Babe, you drink meth in your coffee.”

“And cocaine and Ritalin and ecstasy, but that’s-“

“ _What?!_ ”

“-besides the point. The point is, after a few centuries, give or take, I’ve learned to loosen up. You understand.”

Carlos emphatically did not understand.

Cecil kissed him on the cheek then, and he could maybe feel his flesh zinging on contact. And it wasn’t the normal kind of zing he got every time Cecil kissed him. “I’ll see you after work, okay? Love you.”

Carlos stood there, staring at the counter, even after the front door swung shut behind Cecil. He whispered, to himself and whomsoever might be watching, emotionally, “What the fuck…”

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by true events. theres a reason swiftriver's name is SWIFTriver


End file.
